Cuomo Will Wait and Watch The New Senate Coalition

Gov. Andrew Cuomo didn’t offer an opinion about whether the new coalition government in the state Senate would work. But he’s going to closely watch—and potentially influence—if they drift into the dysfunction that plagued the Senate in 2009 and 2010.

“We have not taken a side. I want to see how it works. And if this works well, God bless,” Cuomo told reporters in his first public comments about the coalition announced yesterday between Senate Republicans and the five-member Independent Democratic Conference.

“And if works well for the people of the state, and it functions and they are voting and we are moving forward, great. If we have a dysfunctional period, that is not going to be a good thing and I will do everything I can to change that,” Cuomo continued.

Cuomo knocked Senate Democrats for their missed opportunity when they were in the majority in 2009 and 2010. He said Democrats controlled all of Albany, but failed to produce.

“That was not a good period of government. That label of dysfunction. All the shenanigans that went on,” he said.

Cuomo said he spoke yesterday to Sen. Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, who heads the IDC, about the coalition.